Google launched the Nexus 4 smartphone, Nexus 7 HSPA+ 7″ tablet and the Nexus 10 10″ tablet earlier this week with the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS. Needless to say all the 3 new products were sold out like hot cakes within a few hours of launch. Subsequently, Google started rolling out the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OTA update to the Nexus family of devices. My Nexus 7 got the update yesterday and my Galaxy Nexus phone got the update today. Here is a quick and simple peek into what has changed with Jelly Bean 4.2 and what I feel about the update…

Multi-User Support: This is something that I haven’t seen till now in mobile devices. Right now, it is available only on tablets and lets you create multiple user accounts with a separate home screen, apps etc. So you and your partner/friend can share a tablet and still keep the data separate.

Photo Sphere Camera: This is the BEST features of this update. Using this you can very easily capture a panoramic shot covering 360 degrees. Now you don’t need an SLR camera or take a shot from a long distance to cover all the 100 people that attended your birthday party in a single picture. I will try to post some pictures taken using the feature soon..

Gesture (swipe) Typing: This feature looks very cool but am not sure about its usability. I was able to type much faster using the traditional method on my tablet than with gesture typing. It is better suited for phones than tablets. Also, it might be useful for those that cannot use their both hands to type.

Performance: The previous version of Jelly Bean itself was pretty slick. This version has just raised the bar. The devices have become even slicker with the update that can be very easily noticed.

Lock Screen Widgets: You can create multiple lock screen widgets to display useful information while the screen is locked. Photos, Email, News etc can be placed here. The email lock screen widget shows you a preview of the message that helps you determine whether or not to unlock to device to read it.

Mini Settings from Notification bar: The most commonly used settings can be simply reached from the notification bar instead of needing to go to the Settings app. This is a useful feature update.

Miscellaneous: There is a new clock app, improved and optimized UI around the OS, clear demarcation of the permissions required while downloading new apps/updates from Google Play etc.

Note: This post is just my experience of playing around with the Jelly Bean 4.2 update for a few hours. There could be a lot more features that I have not tired yet. For more information on the update, please go here.

A new release (2.0) for Meeting Minutes Pro has been released today. It should be available on Google Play in the next 2-3 hours and will be available on BlackBerry AppWorld and Amazon AppStore in the next 1-2 days.

Great News….Release 1.4 (1.6 on BlackBerry App World) transforms Meeting Minutes (Free) from a limited functionality demo version to a full functionality 3 day trial of Meeting Minutes Pro. You can now try and experience the complete set of functionality offered by Meeting Minutes Pro for 3 days before taking a decision on purchasing it.

This update is already live on Google Play and will be live on Amazon and BlackBerry App World in the next couple of days.

Like this:

An interesting write up on Google. This has been taken from a forum on the internet. Credit goes to the original author…

Google is trying to be part of your life in every way. They want to be your phone (Nexus, Google Voice), your social network (Google+, Gtalk etc.), the way you find new places (Navigation, Google Maps), where you go and check-in (Latitude, if you haven’t checked your location tracking you might want to see this and log in with a Google account attached to an android device. It’s pretty…creepy. Google knows where I work, where I live, where I’ve been, how often I stayed at each place and put it in a pie chart of how many hours I spend at each place. I haven’t turned this off because I find this really interesting and I didn’t know Google tracked me so…accurately.)

Google wants to be your ads (adwords etc.), they want to know how you shop and what you like to shop for (Google Wallet, Shopping, Offers, Checkout), they want to be your ISP and cable provider (Google Fiber), they want to be the service to also take you to the places you need to go (Google self-driving car).

Google wants to know everything you see (Google Glass), and how you spend your day to day life.

Google wants to be your web browser (Chrome), they want to be your OS (Chrome OS), and they want to be your tablet, e-reader, music player etc. (Google Books, Google Music, Android, Nexus, Google Movies, etc.)

Google wants to know what makes you laugh and what your interests are (YouTube, Search, News), they want to know the people that you love and the things you like to take pictures of (Picasa, contacts, Google+, Gmail etc.)

And Google also wants to help you find what you want (Search) and help you succeed in your studies (Scholar).

Google Now also knows that package that just shipped from Amazon and when it’s going to arrive, the weather where you live and work, the traffice on your commute, your appointments, the currency and language you’ll need while travelling, and timezones. It’ll also help you find new places to see (FieldTrip), and if your flight is delayed or whether your sports team is winning.

Google also wants to let you know when there’s an emergency and how to get to safety (Hurrican Sandy Google Now alerts showed gas and shelter etc.).

Google also wants to know what money you make (Stocks), when your birthday is and your friends birthdays, hotels restaurants etc.

Apple and Microsoft have got NOTHING on how much Google knows about you.

But I’m okay with it. If I wanted, I can delete much of what Google knows about me, in one click (data liberation of Google account).

Google offers it’s services to better themselves and your own lives. They learn about you so they can market/advertise to you better. Every company wants to do this, and out of all of them, I trust Google the most, because they are transparent at least on how they track me and let me know how I can modify the data they track about me.